Trumbo, film review: How to break baddies the old-school Hollywood way

Bryan Cranston itches with life as the brilliant, beleaguered and blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo 
Charlotte O'Sullivan5 February 2016

Bryan “Breaking Bad” Cranston resembles a used teabag. Aged 59, he makes Terry-Thomas look like Justin Bieber. His first big-screen lead role never runs from this awkward truth. Nor does it involve him wooing a kewpie doll half his age.

This is the story of Dalton Trumbo, the real-life communist who wrote Roman Holiday, and how he beat the Red-baiters and their famous “blacklist”. It’s not as subtle or bold as Breaking Bad (director Jay Roach and scriptwriter John McNamara are happy to trundle through events, rather than fly) but it’s fitfully fun, and with Donald Trump currently using the anti-commie card against Bernie Sanders, definitely relevant.

Cranston (nominated for an Oscar) itches with life as the brilliant, beleaguered screenwriter. Critics have claimed this version of Trumbo is too saintly. Actually, the father-of-three is pretty human: arrogant under pressure, condescending to the one black man he meets and obsessed with “winning” (like most celebrities, he’s a praise-a-holic).

The only reason he takes on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) is because he thinks the Supreme Court will come to his rescue. In prison, stripped of his clothes and forced to undergo a body search, (“Grab your sack and skin it back!” yells the guard), he’s too stunned even to cry.

Helen Mirren plays Hedda Hopper, the witty, anti-Semitic gossip columnist who, like a modern-day Instagram queen, uses her many followers to turn herself into a player. Dressed in an array of colourful hats, she’s all sparkle and spite. In 1956, Trumbo wins an Oscar for The Brave One (penned under the pseudonym Robert Rich). Hopper’s fury lights up the screen. Her dinner date with Trumbo-ally Kirk Douglas (jauntily played by Dean O’Gorman) is similarly vital.

As the film makes clear, Hopper and her colleagues came very close to winning the day. They had big and beautiful friends, including John Wayne and Robert Taylor (black-and-white footage from the time shows Taylor testifying in court, slick-haired and all-but-levitating with smugness).

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1/99

Unfortunately for these guys, the real glamour and zip belonged to their foes. I wish McNamara had found a way to include Marilyn Monroe’s take on the HUAC. When Arthur Miller was subpoenaed, she said, “He’s got to tell them to go f*** themselves. Only in better language!” One day, perhaps, an HBO mini-series will tackle this cultural face-off and blow our minds. In the meantime, check out Trumbo.

Cert 15, 124 mins

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